A horrified California electorate passed Reynolds' measure in a landslide, with 72 percent of the vote.
"If you go back and look at the original ballot language of Proposition 184, it was intended to target rapists and child molesters," Romano insists.
L.A. County District Attorney Steve Cooley tried to convince dozens of California DA's to soften
their approach to third-strike cases.
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Reynolds argues that Proposition 184 worked: Eighteen years later, crime is down dramatically. But crime is down all over the country, and in many parts of the world. California prisons, meanwhile, are so overcrowded that the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the state to transfer or release more than 30,000 felons.
Under three strikes, nearly 9,000 people have been convicted of a third strike and sentenced to life. About 3,000 of these would be able to seek resentencing from a new judge under Proposition 36.
Amidst the dropping crime rate in 2004, California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 66, which would have significantly softened the three-strikes law.
By then, Trevon Wilson was five years into his sentence.
He remembers standing in the yard at Pleasant Valley State Prison in the early evening on Election Night, near the "lifer building," a part of the prison complex that housed inmates doing life sentences.
Inside, they were watching the election returns on the nightly news.
"At night, [Proposition 66] was winning, " he says. "People was making noise, they was screaming, 'Wooooooo!'
"When we woke up the next morning, they was quiet. Their heads was down. It was a big disappointment. "
Proposition 36 is a more moderate approach than the failed Proposition 66.
Proposition 36 would apply to criminals whose prior strikes are for offenses not on a long, official list of serious crimes that includes murder, rape and child molestation.
"It's a modest reform," says Romano, which may explain why it's been endorsed by former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, current chief Charlie Beck and Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley — who opposed Proposition 66.
Cooley has long been a critic of the three-strikes law. Shortly after taking office in 2000, he announced that his office would not apply it in criminal cases where the third offense was nonviolent.
Cooley has tried but failed to convince dozens of other elected district attorneys in California to adopt his approach. Proposition 36 would force them to follow the same rules.
"It's one of the few times where a [proposed] statewide policy has been tested over a long period of time," Romano says.
Michael Reynolds, however, remains unconvinced:
"What voters should ask themselves is, should a twice-convicted, serious or violent offender be sentenced to life upon conviction of a third felony? Or should they allowed to commit a third serious, violent offense? How many victims need to be part of this criminal therapy?"
As for Trevon Wilson, he says he's left his criminal past long behind, despite the fact that he's unemployed.
"Nobody wanna hire me," he says. "Too many felonies."
He hopes that voters will change the state's three-strikes law.
"Wrong is wrong," Wilson says. "If you do a violent crime, you should go away. But taking a candy bar?"
